@Mia L Knowledge is a dime a dozen, meaning knowledge is something that is gained even apart from “paid schooling, made free”. Do not make the mistake of reducing knowledge to something that a few posses, which others need to gain. Nor equate knowledge with truth. In the end your comment is just your opinion and isn’t true, and actually applies to no one but yourself. meaning, it doesn’t matter
@@G_Demolished That’s assuming her statement is correct, and assuming that your opinions can be more valuable and correct than mine. So where do you stand?
@@robert2948 No, just capable of speaking on subjects I don’t believe, and am able to distinguish between thoughts and beliefs, and able to defend them. You?
Carl Swenson: A very perceptive comment. I can just imagine an alternate reality, of Plato and Aristotle complaining "How do they expect me to get this stuff across without a PowerPoint? NOT!
This is very likely rehearsed. Even if he didn’t rehearse it that day, he has done this talk before. If that’s not the case he’s insanely good. But I don’t know anyone who can do that
This 45 mins lecture simply reveals 1) how deep and clear knowledge and understanding Dr. Sugrue has on Kant’s philosophy 2) how a talented lecturer Dr. Sugrue is. I am in awe of Dr. Sugrue’s ability to understand complexes and convey it with clarity and cheerfully. Thank you very much for sharing this wonderful lecture with the best quality of audio and video.
One of the best lectures yet. It cannot be overstated how important Kant's conception of the Categorical Imperative was towards shaping the world of Ethical Philosophy post-Enlightenment.
Wth what a passionate educator, I wish I saw this 30 years ago. Fantastic delivery really makes the subject come alive. So rare to find this quality of delivery and conciseness. A gem
@@RKO1988 Nah, he's explaining a bunch of philosophers, maybe right around 2015-early 2017 but I think right now he'd mostly be okay except for the occasional small outrage of bubbles of morons on Twitter. Not to take anything away from him and he does makes some unique connections from a historical standpoint (pretty sure he's a Historian by doctorate) but there are very few original thoughts here. It's just a really well spoken lecture by someone who cares about the subject matter and getting across information succinctly to his audience, nothing more. Even among some of the more far out circles of left wing thought in academia in the US, I doubt they would see lectures as tacit agreements and recommendations of a particular philosophy or politics, giving them no reason to organize and destroy someone's career (which I'm not saying is right either but I just don't see it, and it's worth keeping in mind that for every guy you have seen cancelled or harassed there are tons of professors in classes dealing with controversial topics and subject matter that are going relatively uninterrupted by social outrage)
@@worm9862 agreed. it literally makes no sense to say he would be "cancelled". is every philosophy teacher cancelled nowadays too? because that's all he does: teach, and he is very impersonal while doing so.
Your ability to teach is unparalleled to any other teacher I’ve had. Absolutely brilliant. These lectures have had a profound impact on me in the past year.
I’m so grateful for the invention of video cameras without them this man wouldn’t have been able to share his mind with the world. Thank you professor rest easy buddy
For me this wonderful lecture shows two things 1) a command of the subject matter(no notes or prompts) 2) a genuine passion and love of philosophy. As someone like myself training as a Psychotherapist, I absolutely love all these lectures, they are deeply informative and encourage deeper engagement! Great work sir!
Dr Sugrue, I want to thank you for uploading these lectures for us to watch for free. They are truly a gift and have impacted my life in such a positive way, so again thank you ❤️
It’s amazing how Prof. Sugrue can take a subject like the Kantiean view of ethics and break it down in a way anyone can understand. Like Einstein once said “If you can’t explain a subject to a six year old then you don’t understand the subject yourself.” I think Professor Sugrue could explain all of these lectures to a class of six year olds and they would completely understand it, sadly I’m still wrapping my mind around the lecture but I understand the importance of Kants view and why we need to apply it in every decision we make. Thank you once again for the lecture Professor.
Jason, you do understand it. Your comment - I understand the importance of Kant's view and why we need to apply it in every decision we make - that is the essence of his philosophy.
Judging by Einstein's own standard, Einstein himself is an idiot: Only a handful of people knows what the heck he was talking about when he first presented the general relativity theory :)
Prof. Sugrue --- I love your lectures. I really think that, in the world, there is everything, if we would and will go there. I look forward to returning to this, and listening.
This man is just so articulated and a sort of genius in dismantling complex , dry , monotonous philosophy for someone who isn't expertise in the field . thanks sir
Great lecture! The teacher rattles on in difficult vocabulary, but it doesn't matter because he knows what he is talking about, does it captivatingly and transfers the most important knowledge. And that's how you fascinate the audience. Thank you!
I've begun binge watching these lectures as I grow more and more interested in philosophy and morality. Thank you for making this content available to us all.
A profound lecture when Professor Sugrue does the impossible- he makes Kant easy to understand. My college philosophy teacher told me of his own Professor, back in the day, gave him two pages of Kant to read, and told him to highlight with a marker what he didn't understand. After reading the 2 pages, he told me only one sentence Did Not get highlighted. Now, I have seen frequently for a half year now, viewers praising Prof. Sugrue's lecture on Marcus Aurelius to the skies. Nothing wrong with that. But I have seen NO comment praising his lecture on Kant. This seems to me hypocritical, because Stoicism is premised on the concept of Virtue, and striving after it as a mean of self-respect. While this Kant lecture is the near- ultimate in logically defining the concept of Virtue. So why so few viewers?
I believe Stoicism's focus on a certain individual pragmatism makes it more popular. I know very little about these things, but it seems to me Kant instead attempts to propose a way towards knowing absolute morality. Which is a less accessible concept, and not very convincing as far as I am concerned.
@@sangwaraumo Thank you for your honest opinion. From what I know of the concurrence of "Pragmatism" and "Philosophy" I believe William James ( brother of Henry James, the novelist) developed the theory of Pragmatism, and may even have coined the word. In my opinion, there is widespread belief of wanting to be 'captain of one's ship" and figure out for oneself what is the Virtue and striving after it- that were the cornerstones of Marcus Aurelius and Dr.Sugrue famous lecture in him. But surely, if we all have a unique idea of Virtue- then it is not Virtue we are striving after, but merely our opinion of it
@@colleencupido5125 I will be certain to look into William James, thank you. I think I understand what you mean about the difference between virtue and opinion, I am just not sure Virtue, can be known.
@@sangwaraumo You are quite welcome. I hope you find what you are looking for. Perhaps the ultimate definition of Virtue cannot be understood. Please understand I am Not trying to push Christianity on you, but just giving you an option to look into. Author CS Lewis wrote an extremely controversial book, a short one, called The Abolition of Man. AT THE VERY END there is a sort of appendix Lewis calls The Tao ( not what we now mean by this word.) It is a collection of writings whose sources are clearly identified. Concepts such as courage, loyalty to parents, care for children are all in sections with short excerpts from source including Ancient Egypt, Chinese, Native American, Early Norse, Babylonian, etc. That describe in a fascinating way that rather than morality being forced on us by "Old-fashioned religion" that has no authority- according to current times- what we might call Morality has been remarkably similar in vastly different cultures across thousands of years of recorded history. You might want to check it out.
0:28 Philosophy of The Enlightment Reaction to Hume Hume - Good is what pleases me Ethics is just opinion 2:28 Religious Pious Kant, German Protestants, Solemn 3:18 Feelings are different from 1 person to another, FEELINGS VARY, e.g. ETHICS VARY, e.g. RIGHT AND WRONG VARY Kant - ACKT 5:04 _Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals_ 5:40 wishing to become The Newton of Morals The World is 2 World of Sense, Phenomina World of Forms, Pneumina 7:23 What are the Rules of Morals? Newton’s World is Not Free Man Is Machine, Bounced by Force 9:51 Universal Law. TRUE here there EVERYWHERE CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE Good Will 11:01 Departing from Hume Hume cares not about Intention Kant wishes to care about Intention 13:00 Intention has a place in legal penalty 13:44 *Categorical Imperative* 14:07 Reason is a Slave of Passions Reason is an instrument Wants come from elsewhere 15:50 Reason cannot be anything more than an instrument 16:36 Hypothetical Imperative • Specific to you in your specific circumstance If want….Then do…. 17:33 Categorical Imperative Do This, no Ifs or personal wants 18:54 Act so that your action can be Universalized 1. People recognize rules 2. People can improve their morals 20:02 When we do wrong, we want to create exceptions for ME Don’t behave Irrationaly Behave rationally Live up to the rules Maturity, love virtue 24:41 Be More than That Which Desires Responsible Moral Agents 27:27 Politics FROM Morals Leave the state of nature Form the Social Contract
8:44 *Kant’s moral inquisition* “Human beings are essentially elaborate soft machines, they’re internal clockworks that do what they do because they have to. Since that’s the nature of the universe as a whole once we adopt Newtonian mechanics as an architectonic perspective on the world-this is what bothers Kant. He says _if we live in an entirely determined world of bodies moving through space well then what does it mean to say that this is a good action or that’s a bad action?_ It simply says that I like this action or that I don’t like that action, it relativizes moral judgment, it subjectivizes moral judgment. It essentially says that there are no moral facts that there are only moral opinions and that the aggregate (the rough generalizations about most moral opinions) are what we call _good_ and _evil_ [...] What it does is relativize and subjectivize ethics, turn moral judgement into what Kant calls, _a wretched anthropology.”_
@@drog.ndtrax3023 'both of these paths lead to authoritarianism' please explain? Isn't the essence of a secular state achieved by complete manifestation of democracy in all political affairs? ..
Kant originated the technique required to sell irrational notions to the men of a skeptical, cynical age who have formally rejected mysticism without grasping the rudiments of rationality. The technique is as follows: if you want to propagate an outrageously evil idea (based on traditionally accepted doctrines), your conclusion must be brazenly clear, but your proof unintelligible. Your proof must be so tangled a mess that it will paralyze a reader’s critical faculty-a mess of evasions, equivocations, obfuscations, circumlocutions, non sequiturs, endless sentences leading nowhere, irrelevant side issues, clauses, sub-clauses and sub-sub-clauses, a meticulously lengthy proving of the obvious, and big chunks of the arbitrary thrown in as self-evident, erudite references to sciences, to pseudo-sciences, to the never-to-be-sciences, to the untraceable and the unprovable-all of it resting on a zero: the absence of definitions. I offer in evidence the Critique of Pure Reason. -Ayn Rand
@@drog.ndtrax3023 Kant is an emotional authoritarian with his sleazy drivel about an alleged sense of duty announcing God. He also evaded the rational humanism of Aristotle. He is a master only at rationalizing evasion. Ethics Of Evil-Leonard Peikoff, in _Ominous Parallels_. Kant-Peikoff, in History Of Philosophy ,Ayn Rand Institute
@@caseycrowe2333 In reality, man is a free moral agent but Kant rejected reality for fantasy, like an addict daydreaming about omnipotence. Kant imagined that man had free will. Even then, it was a free will without the freedom to focus ones mind onto reality. Kant was an intellectual opium smoker., never leaving his intellectual opium den.
Happy to be able to comment here 2 years later.... thank you sir! Theses lecture are incredible to come back to! After we heard you and your words years ago, to be able to come back and see these words, in a different light. thank you! (PS I suck at english I hope you understand I am just trying to communicate my appreciation for your work!)
Going from this Professor's quality to current "Professors" whose whole semester plan is based in materials provided by the Editorial house (probably never even read the books). I can say the world is definitely improving.
I have been watching a lot of your videos recently and i must say that not one of them has disapoint me so far, your great at what you do, and i want to thank you for giving us this wonderfull content for free!. Greetings from argentina
Kants’s achievement seems to be exactly what Dr Sugrue ends on. We choose to believe in the morality and that is Kants vital component, belief. but that doesn’t contradict with Hume’s feeling origin of morals. They are both right. Moral conscience is a question of feeling and belief. They both utilized reason but morality is clearly beyond the limits of reason. If it was then moral laws could be overtly expressed and the “good will” would be defined through intellect. Reason tells you how make moral judgement but not why. Love these videos!
I also agree both are right, and some misconceptions may appear when comparing both. Hume was a naturalist who was also a strong determinist, he explained the events ontologically, and then applied morals on top of that based on our perspectives. Now Kant moved the moral values to the ontological events, to the outside. As much as I agree with lots of aspects of Kant's philosophy, I can't agree with him in this one. Take this example, what if happens to the world nearly collapse and just one person remains alive, but he is blind. There are books, outdoors, information, but he can't see it, so the values and morals that this person don't know a priori will simply disappear, and he's not able to learn more because of biological limitations. So it's all in human reality, not outside events, it's our minds that creates meaning.
@@Nyconbr I think, moreover the idea of perception, you're dead on the money in regards to being alone: to be a moral agent, is to inherently dictate and view one's actions in relation to others. Without anyone else, what is there to be said about the notions of good and evil? You don't have anyone to apply it on or with!
6:15 *Kant: Newton of the moral world* “Kant is a metaphysical thinker. What I mean by metaphysical thinker is a thinker that splits the cosmos; splits the world into two parts. This is somewhat analogous to the distinction Plato makes in the _Divided Line,_ between the world of _sense_ and the world of the _forms_ -some world outside of space and time. Kant believes that there’s some similar distinction in ontology-there’s a noumenal world and a phenomenal world.”
Isaac Newton's discoveries may have led to a Mechanical Universe that many chose to boot God out of, but Newton himself held deep religious beliefs. I was privileged to look on display at the Huntington Issac Newton hand-written notebooks in a touring exhibit. I found fascinating that he wrote a book comparing and contrasting the Book of Daniel with the book of Revelation. And with all the horror stories I hear of those students struggling with Calculas the fact.he Invented It because he needed it is mind-boggling!
@@colleencupido5125 Yeah pretty wild. What’s even crazier is the historical controversy between Newton and Leibniz. Modern understanding is that they both invented slightly different forms of calculus at the same time (technically Leibniz published first). Reminds me of the historical scandal between Edison and Tesla.
@@nightoftheworld My understanding is Liebniz published first but Isaac Newton invented it first- for his own use and he with no desire to publish it until a friend advised him to. IMHO the controversy between Edison and Tesla was far different. The heavy-hitter unmentioned by you is George Westinghouse- himself the inventor of the air brake for Railroads that saved countless lives and gave him the funds to fight Edison. Tesla himself describe Westinghouse in glowing terms. Edison fought with no ethics but we are talking of something-electric current- that will massively change the world in ways Calculas did not. And lots of money was involved in the A/C vs. D/C battle
@@colleencupido5125 yes I believe you’re right about Leibniz and Newton. I was speaking about the similarities in the controversy between two public figures over time not to specific historical facts here, but thanks for added info.
Great content, and one of the few channels I now subscribe to. Dr. Sugrue was a great help to me in both my undergraduate and graduate studies up here in Canada - his 'Plato, Socrates and the Dialogues' Great Courses audio book was on constant play-back for me during those years, but these videos take learning to another level for me.
Maybe you can help me. I cannot find his biography with dates anywhere on the Internet. When did you study with him? How old was he? What does it mean to say that he was a "graduate of the great courses?"
Artie Lange: Kudos to you. Back when The Great Courses ( then The Teaching Company) first released Dr.Sugrue's course on Plato, I was positively amazed after finishing it the first time. I wrote a customer review "With Professors like Michael Sugrue to listen to, who needs Public Television? They actually printed my comment on a flyer sent through the mail advertising his course!
Maybe it's the nostalgia talking, but I 'member a time when most of the lecture series provided by Great Courses were absolute bangers like this. This man gives one hell of a lecture.
We wish Plato and Kant's philosophy teachers joined their forces to teach the universal laws of morality not only to university and school students but also to everyone who is interested in the GOOD WILL as a form of FREEDOM! Thank you so much!
14:12 reason is a slave of the passions; reason is an instrument to satisfy desires; desires are not rationally determined 34:37 For plato the man is metafoor for republic
Pretty great. I summed the Moral Imperative up in one sentence in Western Civ II thusly: “It’s either moral all the time or not at all and people aren’t mere means to your own ends”.
Lol, I also summed up his notion for “how to achieve perpetual peace” as, “1) be a small republic so that the people who are deciding to go to war would be the ones who have to actually fight the war alongside their fellow citizens, whom they presumably care about 2) DONT be the Roman Republic 3) Perpetual Peace”. I’m sure that earthquake you felt just now was him rolling over in his grave.
Right now Kant is my favorite philosopher. He caught my attention with his Transcendental Idealism, it's so fascinating to me. And now I'm learning about Categorical Imperatives, which I might not agree with 100%, but it's still relevant in majority situations. I applaud Dr. Sugrue for explaining things so clearly. And he literally lectured for 45 minutes straight by memory that's how well he knows this topic.
I have never been teached like this before.. I had a lot of great teachers but i still needed to do a lot of self study. I understood everything he said in one single watch, very few people teachers can achieve that and that too without opening a single paper. I wonder how much he had to study to reach this point.
Bear in mind that if you haven’t read the thing yourself then you can’t say you really know the subject, this one is only to encourage you to read it yourself and to understand the context. As good as this lecture is it is still very introductory hence superficial (which isn’t a bad thing in this case, on the contrary, this is the point).
So Kant’s distinction between “hypothetical imperative” and “categorical imperative” is essentially cutting the _IF_ statement off of the hypothetical imperative (if thirsty, then drink). The categorical would be like a “demand from above” right-a sort of divine law/supreme injunction that we must obey.
Absolutely! Dead on! In the aim of finding an ethical/moral structure that every moral individual should follow, Kant had to find the most essential, imperative, moral opinion that everyone had, regardless of gender, age, time period or culture. Something that everyone could agree on, wether they wanted to or not.
Our all plaudits for DR Sugrue whose waterfall of rhythmic plain simple sentences completely cleanse up the listeners' minds of several ambiguities and anomalies raised by some critics respecting the KANT'S thematic Assertions of social MORES...the flow doesnot decline even unto the last...!
@11:54 intent vs behaviour Kant vs Hume @15:30 how to get what you want - reason Reason does not tell you what to pursue. According to Hume, these stem from irrationality.
What a beautiful time to be alive when so much high end knowledge is freely available to anyone who wants it
@Mia L
Knowledge is a dime a dozen, meaning knowledge is something that is gained even apart from “paid schooling, made free”.
Do not make the mistake of reducing knowledge to something that a few posses, which others need to gain. Nor equate knowledge with truth.
In the end your comment is just your opinion and isn’t true, and actually applies to no one but yourself. meaning, it doesn’t matter
@@eagleclaw1179 No, Mia was pretty spot on. There are a lot of people out there who just don’t care about learning.
@@G_Demolished
That’s assuming her statement is correct, and assuming that your opinions can be more valuable and correct than mine. So where do you stand?
@@eagleclaw1179 you’re a glass half empty kind of person aren’t you?
@@robert2948
No, just capable of speaking on subjects I don’t believe, and am able to distinguish between thoughts and beliefs, and able to defend them.
You?
no notes, no slides, no b.s.
Dr. Sugrue, you are one of the most talented orators of our time. Mega cap doff to you sir.
Carl Swenson: A very perceptive comment. I can just imagine an alternate reality, of Plato and Aristotle complaining "How do they expect me to get this stuff across without a PowerPoint? NOT!
And a very boring one too 🤣
i have watched most of his lecture on this channel.. he never use a note..
he is amazing indeed
Heyy what's up
Although I agree he is amazing and a very good teacher, I think he uses notes in his lecture on Foucault.
This is not rehearsed- this is pure knowledge and understanding of the topic. In awe!
He’d been giving daily lectures for years at this point.
This is very likely rehearsed. Even if he didn’t rehearse it that day, he has done this talk before. If that’s not the case he’s insanely good. But I don’t know anyone who can do that
@@ab_c4429Sugrue was the guy!
This is definitely rehearsed. He'd just done it so many times that it just flowed out of him by the time these were recorded
One of the greatest teachers of all time. Rest In Peace Dr. Sugrue.
Cavemen ideology 😂😅
This 45 mins lecture simply reveals 1) how deep and clear knowledge and understanding Dr. Sugrue has on Kant’s philosophy 2) how a talented lecturer Dr. Sugrue is. I am in awe of Dr. Sugrue’s ability to understand complexes and convey it with clarity and cheerfully. Thank you very much for sharing this wonderful lecture with the best quality of audio and video.
One of the best lectures yet. It cannot be overstated how important Kant's conception of the Categorical Imperative was towards shaping the world of Ethical Philosophy post-Enlightenment.
As a nihilist, I find myself returning to the categorical imperative as a pragmatic method
@@thucydides7849 a nihilist huh? That must be exhausting
@@bucksfan77 This whole thread is amazing. They sound like Patrick Bateman
Ah yes, Egggzactly! I have no idea what you just said.
Yes, shaping it for the worse.
Wth what a passionate educator, I wish I saw this 30 years ago. Fantastic delivery really makes the subject come alive. So rare to find this quality of delivery and conciseness. A gem
He would be cancelled in this era
27:29 27:29 27:29 @@RKO1988 😮😢🎉🎉😮🎉🎉
@@RKO1988 *in a wojak voice* west fallen!!
@@RKO1988 Nah, he's explaining a bunch of philosophers, maybe right around 2015-early 2017 but I think right now he'd mostly be okay except for the occasional small outrage of bubbles of morons on Twitter. Not to take anything away from him and he does makes some unique connections from a historical standpoint (pretty sure he's a Historian by doctorate) but there are very few original thoughts here. It's just a really well spoken lecture by someone who cares about the subject matter and getting across information succinctly to his audience, nothing more.
Even among some of the more far out circles of left wing thought in academia in the US, I doubt they would see lectures as tacit agreements and recommendations of a particular philosophy or politics, giving them no reason to organize and destroy someone's career (which I'm not saying is right either but I just don't see it, and it's worth keeping in mind that for every guy you have seen cancelled or harassed there are tons of professors in classes dealing with controversial topics and subject matter that are going relatively uninterrupted by social outrage)
@@worm9862 agreed. it literally makes no sense to say he would be "cancelled". is every philosophy teacher cancelled nowadays too? because that's all he does: teach, and he is very impersonal while doing so.
Mr. Sugrue is the GOAT of lecturers
This is not just my favorite RUclips channel but also one of the very few good things in my life. Thank You
Your ability to teach is unparalleled to any other teacher I’ve had. Absolutely brilliant. These lectures have had a profound impact on me in the past year.
I’m so grateful for the invention of video cameras without them this man wouldn’t have been able to share his mind with the world. Thank you professor rest easy buddy
These lectures are exceptional. Thank you for posting Dr. Sugrue!
For me this wonderful lecture shows two things 1) a command of the subject matter(no notes or prompts) 2) a genuine passion and love of philosophy. As someone like myself training as a Psychotherapist, I absolutely love all these lectures, they are deeply informative and encourage deeper engagement! Great work sir!
I've listened to over 20 podcasts on Kant; this is the only one that made his philosophy understandable. Thank you! Thank you for that!
Dr Sugrue, I want to thank you for uploading these lectures for us to watch for free. They are truly a gift and have impacted my life in such a positive way, so again thank you ❤️
It’s amazing how Prof. Sugrue can take a subject like the Kantiean view of ethics and break it down in a way anyone can understand. Like Einstein once said “If you can’t explain a subject to a six year old then you don’t understand the subject yourself.” I think Professor Sugrue could explain all of these lectures to a class of six year olds and they would completely understand it, sadly I’m still wrapping my mind around the lecture but I understand the importance of Kants view and why we need to apply it in every decision we make. Thank you once again for the lecture Professor.
bruh six year olds don't know what homage means dafuq
Jason, you do understand it. Your comment - I understand the importance of Kant's view and why we need to apply it in every decision we make - that is the essence of his philosophy.
Einstein was wrong. An inability to communicate with a child is no barrier to scientific or philosophic progress. Communication is a different gift.
Judging by Einstein's own standard, Einstein himself is an idiot: Only a handful of people knows what the heck he was talking about when he first presented the general relativity theory :)
most people should know by now Einstein was stupid
Prof. Sugrue --- I love your lectures. I really think that, in the world, there is everything, if we would and will go there. I look forward to returning to this, and listening.
Miss the guy most days. What a gift he gave us. Legend
Agreed.
This man is just so articulated and a sort of genius in dismantling complex , dry , monotonous philosophy for someone who isn't expertise in the field . thanks sir
This is probably the best lecture I have ever taken part in. This is genuine and passionate and so very knowledgeable. Excellent teachings. 🙏🏼💯
This channel/lecturer is a gold mine, a treasure trove, of Knowledge.
Oh, boy, is this speaker fantatic and what a relevant topic for us in today’s world! Thank you!
Amazing, it's incredible how he explains such complex ideas in 45min!
And the more he builds and showcases the structure, the more the poetry of it veritably flows out of him. Awesome.
Keep in mind 45min with no notes, slides, or text to read from
Since I started to listen to this type of lectures I feel that I have been robbed of all this knowledge and I just began to open my mind to it.
Did a psychology exam and referenced Kant's moral philosophy. I wish I had seen this earlier. Such a great mind!
Rest in peace Prof!😢❤️
Who said that he's died?
@@arya_cahyadinatayep. He passed away in January.
@@arya_cahyadinataIt was posted on his ig i think. Rip to the blooood
Amen
We miss you Dr. Sugrue. I pray you knew the impact you had on others.
So much information in 43 Minutes. This men's knowledge and articulation skills are very impressive.
From Germany: What a great, comprehensive lecture of Kant's moral philosophy. Do to your neighbour, what you want him to do to you!
Great lecture! The teacher rattles on in difficult vocabulary, but it doesn't matter because he knows what he is talking about, does it captivatingly and transfers the most important knowledge. And that's how you fascinate the audience. Thank you!
Lol, you think this is difficult? Read the source material.
I've begun binge watching these lectures as I grow more and more interested in philosophy and morality. Thank you for making this content available to us all.
A profound lecture when Professor Sugrue does the impossible- he makes Kant easy to understand. My college philosophy teacher told me of his own Professor, back in the day, gave him two pages of Kant to read, and told him to highlight with a marker what he didn't understand. After reading the 2 pages, he told me only one sentence Did Not get highlighted. Now, I have seen frequently for a half year now, viewers praising Prof. Sugrue's lecture on Marcus Aurelius to the skies. Nothing wrong with that. But I have seen NO comment praising his lecture on Kant. This seems to me hypocritical, because Stoicism is premised on the concept of Virtue, and striving after it as a mean of self-respect. While this Kant lecture is the near- ultimate in logically defining the concept of Virtue. So why so few viewers?
I believe Stoicism's focus on a certain individual pragmatism makes it more popular. I know very little about these things, but it seems to me Kant instead attempts to propose a way towards knowing absolute morality. Which is a less accessible concept, and not very convincing as far as I am concerned.
@@sangwaraumo Thank you for your honest opinion. From what I know of the concurrence of "Pragmatism" and "Philosophy" I believe William James ( brother of Henry James, the novelist) developed the theory of Pragmatism, and may even have coined the word. In my opinion, there is widespread belief of wanting to be 'captain of one's ship" and figure out for oneself what is the Virtue and striving after it- that were the cornerstones of Marcus Aurelius and Dr.Sugrue famous lecture in him. But surely, if we all have a unique idea of Virtue- then it is not Virtue we are striving after, but merely our opinion of it
@@colleencupido5125 I will be certain to look into William James, thank you.
I think I understand what you mean about the difference between virtue and opinion, I am just not sure Virtue, can be known.
@@sangwaraumo You are quite welcome. I hope you find what you are looking for. Perhaps the ultimate definition of Virtue cannot be understood. Please understand I am Not trying to push Christianity on you, but just giving you an option to look into. Author CS Lewis wrote an extremely controversial book, a short one, called The Abolition of Man. AT THE VERY END there is a sort of appendix Lewis calls The Tao ( not what we now mean by this word.) It is a collection of writings whose sources are clearly identified. Concepts such as courage, loyalty to parents, care for children are all in sections with short excerpts from source including Ancient Egypt, Chinese, Native American, Early Norse, Babylonian, etc. That describe in a fascinating way that rather than morality being forced on us by "Old-fashioned religion" that has no authority- according to current times- what we might call Morality has been remarkably similar in vastly different cultures across thousands of years of recorded history. You might want to check it out.
@@colleencupido5125 I'll note it down as well. I'm sure it'll be a good read. All the best!
0:28 Philosophy of The Enlightment
Reaction to Hume
Hume - Good is what pleases me
Ethics is just opinion
2:28 Religious Pious Kant, German Protestants, Solemn
3:18 Feelings are different from 1 person to another, FEELINGS VARY, e.g. ETHICS VARY, e.g. RIGHT AND WRONG VARY
Kant - ACKT
5:04 _Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals_ 5:40 wishing to become The Newton of Morals
The World is 2
World of Sense, Phenomina
World of Forms, Pneumina
7:23 What are the Rules of Morals?
Newton’s World is Not Free
Man Is Machine, Bounced by Force
9:51 Universal Law.
TRUE here there EVERYWHERE
CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE
Good Will
11:01 Departing from Hume
Hume cares not about Intention
Kant wishes to care about Intention
13:00 Intention has a place in legal penalty
13:44 *Categorical Imperative*
14:07 Reason is a Slave of Passions
Reason is an instrument
Wants come from elsewhere
15:50 Reason cannot be anything more than an instrument
16:36 Hypothetical Imperative
• Specific to you in your specific circumstance
If want….Then do….
17:33 Categorical Imperative
Do This, no Ifs or personal wants
18:54 Act so that your action can be Universalized
1. People recognize rules
2. People can improve their morals
20:02 When we do wrong, we want to create exceptions for ME
Don’t behave Irrationaly
Behave rationally
Live up to the rules
Maturity, love virtue
24:41 Be More than That Which Desires
Responsible Moral Agents
27:27 Politics FROM Morals
Leave the state of nature
Form the Social Contract
YOOOOOO thats so usefull
These lectures are exceptional. Thank you for posting Dr. Sugrue!. Amazing, it's incredible how he explains such complex ideas in 45min!.
Shout out to Dr. Sugrue here for making this content free and accessible, in chat I think an act of following the categorical imperative.
The fact that this video is free to watch is just as crazy as how informative it is.
8:44 *Kant’s moral inquisition* “Human beings are essentially elaborate soft machines, they’re internal clockworks that do what they do because they have to. Since that’s the nature of the universe as a whole once we adopt Newtonian mechanics as an architectonic perspective on the world-this is what bothers Kant. He says _if we live in an entirely determined world of bodies moving through space well then what does it mean to say that this is a good action or that’s a bad action?_ It simply says that I like this action or that I don’t like that action, it relativizes moral judgment, it subjectivizes moral judgment. It essentially says that there are no moral facts that there are only moral opinions and that the aggregate (the rough generalizations about most moral opinions) are what we call _good_ and _evil_ [...] What it does is relativize and subjectivize ethics, turn moral judgement into what Kant calls, _a wretched anthropology.”_
He wanted a moral speed of light.
@@drog.ndtrax3023 'both of these paths lead to authoritarianism' please explain? Isn't the essence of a secular state achieved by complete manifestation of democracy in all political affairs? ..
Kant originated the technique required to sell irrational notions to the men of a skeptical, cynical age who have formally rejected mysticism without grasping the rudiments of rationality. The technique is as follows: if you want to propagate an outrageously evil idea (based on traditionally accepted doctrines), your conclusion must be brazenly clear, but your proof unintelligible. Your proof must be so tangled a mess that it will paralyze a reader’s critical faculty-a mess of evasions, equivocations, obfuscations, circumlocutions, non sequiturs, endless sentences leading nowhere, irrelevant side issues, clauses, sub-clauses and sub-sub-clauses, a meticulously lengthy proving of the obvious, and big chunks of the arbitrary thrown in as self-evident, erudite references to sciences, to pseudo-sciences, to the never-to-be-sciences, to the untraceable and the unprovable-all of it resting on a zero: the absence of definitions. I offer in evidence the Critique of Pure Reason.
-Ayn Rand
@@drog.ndtrax3023 Kant is an emotional authoritarian with his sleazy drivel about an alleged sense of duty announcing God. He also evaded the rational humanism of Aristotle. He is a master only at rationalizing
evasion.
Ethics Of Evil-Leonard Peikoff, in _Ominous Parallels_.
Kant-Peikoff, in History Of Philosophy ,Ayn Rand Institute
@@caseycrowe2333 In reality, man is a free moral agent but Kant rejected reality for fantasy, like an addict daydreaming about omnipotence. Kant imagined that man had free will. Even then, it was a free will without the freedom to focus ones mind onto reality. Kant was an intellectual opium smoker., never leaving his intellectual opium den.
This channel really should have more subscribers!!
followers of kant should burn in hell.
so true.
@@jarrodyuki7081 why
Just got a new one.
just subscribed. first ever notifications active for me...ever.
Finally! Someone explained the categorical imperative in a way I could understand!
I am becoming addicted to this channel, it resumes all books I read and thought understood, thank you a million times.
I have been watching all the videos for the love of philosophy and this is music to my ears, please upload more of Dr Michaels work.
I have truly never seen a teacher as sharp as Dr Sugrue
Happy to be able to comment here 2 years later.... thank you sir! Theses lecture are incredible to come back to! After we heard you and your words years ago, to be able to come back and see these words, in a different light. thank you! (PS I suck at english I hope you understand I am just trying to communicate my appreciation for your work!)
I think I've seen four of these lectures, so far. Wonderfully taught. I look forward to watching the rest.
Going from this Professor's quality to current "Professors" whose whole semester plan is based in materials provided by the Editorial house (probably never even read the books). I can say the world is definitely improving.
A feast for the eyes and ears ❤️
Hope you are doing well Dr Sugrue!
I think he passed away, bless him!
@@markmendis5951 I don't think it was him...I just checked but can't find anything.
I think the rumours of his death have been greatly exaggerated. He was alive and lecturing as of 17 AUG 2021.
@@thelongdarkteatimeofthesou4497 He sure sound alive on the podcast about foucault 14/10/21 but I´m only 2 mins on, one never knows how it ends
@@studywithmir1994 This is true... there could have been an abrupt and deadly ending.
Thank you for this GOLD! Your work is absolutely phenomenal, or rather noumenal (eternal)! Respect 🙏
10:55 “The intention of your action is the standard by which we are going to judge it.”
Now.. to discern _naive intentions_ and _overt negligence._
…or evil intent. I wonder if Kant’s CI would shatter under the crushing weight of Jung’s concept of the human Self and it’s embedded shadow 😄
@@MrBenzcdi Very Interesting! Now, I have to explore this issue. 👍
~TD, Boston
I have been watching a lot of your videos recently and i must say that not one of them has disapoint me so far, your great at what you do, and i want to thank you for giving us this wonderfull content for free!. Greetings from argentina
Kants’s achievement seems to be exactly what Dr Sugrue ends on. We choose to believe in the morality and that is Kants vital component, belief. but that doesn’t contradict with Hume’s feeling origin of morals. They are both right. Moral conscience is a question of feeling and belief. They both utilized reason but morality is clearly beyond the limits of reason. If it was then moral laws could be overtly expressed and the “good will” would be defined through intellect. Reason tells you how make moral judgement but not why. Love these videos!
I also agree both are right, and some misconceptions may appear when comparing both.
Hume was a naturalist who was also a strong determinist, he explained the events ontologically, and then applied morals on top of that based on our perspectives. Now Kant moved the moral values to the ontological events, to the outside.
As much as I agree with lots of aspects of Kant's philosophy, I can't agree with him in this one.
Take this example, what if happens to the world nearly collapse and just one person remains alive, but he is blind. There are books, outdoors, information, but he can't see it, so the values and morals that this person don't know a priori will simply disappear, and he's not able to learn more because of biological limitations.
So it's all in human reality, not outside events, it's our minds that creates meaning.
@@Nyconbr I think, moreover the idea of perception, you're dead on the money in regards to being alone: to be a moral agent, is to inherently dictate and view one's actions in relation to others. Without anyone else, what is there to be said about the notions of good and evil? You don't have anyone to apply it on or with!
> morality is clearly beyond the limits of reason
Morality is a guide to life and happiness, not a rationalization of sacrifice, suffering and death.
Been waiting for this
6:15 *Kant: Newton of the moral world* “Kant is a metaphysical thinker. What I mean by metaphysical thinker is a thinker that splits the cosmos; splits the world into two parts. This is somewhat analogous to the distinction Plato makes in the _Divided Line,_ between the world of _sense_ and the world of the _forms_ -some world outside of space and time. Kant believes that there’s some similar distinction in ontology-there’s a noumenal world and a phenomenal world.”
Isaac Newton's discoveries may have led to a Mechanical Universe that many chose to boot God out of, but Newton himself held deep religious beliefs. I was privileged to look on display at the Huntington Issac Newton hand-written notebooks in a touring exhibit. I found fascinating that he wrote a book comparing and contrasting the Book of Daniel with the book of Revelation. And with all the horror stories I hear of those students struggling with Calculas the fact.he Invented It because he needed it is mind-boggling!
@@colleencupido5125 Yeah pretty wild. What’s even crazier is the historical controversy between Newton and Leibniz. Modern understanding is that they both invented slightly different forms of calculus at the same time (technically Leibniz published first). Reminds me of the historical scandal between Edison and Tesla.
@@nightoftheworld My understanding is Liebniz published first but Isaac Newton invented it first- for his own use and he with no desire to publish it until a friend advised him to. IMHO the controversy between Edison and Tesla was far different. The heavy-hitter unmentioned by you is George Westinghouse- himself the inventor of the air brake for Railroads that saved countless lives and gave him the funds to fight Edison. Tesla himself describe Westinghouse in glowing terms. Edison fought with no ethics but we are talking of something-electric current- that will massively change the world in ways Calculas did not. And lots of money was involved in the A/C vs. D/C battle
@@colleencupido5125 yes I believe you’re right about Leibniz and Newton. I was speaking about the similarities in the controversy between two public figures over time not to specific historical facts here, but thanks for added info.
I will never forget you dear Profesor!!!!❤
I Kant believe how good this channel is
Puns are the lowest form of humor.
@@dr.michaelsugrue thank you, bad jokes aside thanks for loading this. Ive been listening to this at work and I’m happy to have found this channel
Fig leaf = Human - So Elegant. WOW. One of your best lectures Dr Sugrue. So much to learn . Incredibly useful.
Reading up on Kant, the timing couldn't have been better! Thank you
i hate deontologists more than nazis hate jews.
@@jarrodyuki7081 ok buddy
this man is magnificent... to repeat: I feel as if I have struck gold!
youll forget it all in a few days..
Hahaha yea
Great explanation of the topic at hand. Understandable by the beginner, too.
Great content, and one of the few channels I now subscribe to. Dr. Sugrue was a great help to me in both my undergraduate and graduate studies up here in Canada - his 'Plato, Socrates and the Dialogues' Great Courses audio book was on constant play-back for me during those years, but these videos take learning to another level for me.
Maybe you can help me. I cannot find his biography with dates anywhere on the Internet. When did you study with him? How old was he? What does it mean to say that he was a "graduate of the great courses?"
Artie Lange: Kudos to you. Back when The Great Courses ( then The Teaching Company) first released Dr.Sugrue's course on Plato, I was positively amazed after finishing it the first time. I wrote a customer review "With Professors like Michael Sugrue to listen to, who needs Public Television? They actually printed my comment on a flyer sent through the mail advertising his course!
Maybe it's the nostalgia talking, but I 'member a time when most of the lecture series provided by Great Courses were absolute bangers like this. This man gives one hell of a lecture.
What happened ??
I feel privileged to have access to such a lucid and accessible analysis. Thank you for sharing your work.
Dr. Sugrue's lectures are absolutely phenomenal! I hope there will be more of your videos soon. Thank you for uploading.
We wish Plato and Kant's philosophy teachers joined their forces to teach the universal laws of morality not only to university and school students but also to everyone who is interested in the GOOD WILL as a form of FREEDOM! Thank you so much!
Your lecture on Marcus Aurelius is one of the best YT vids EVER.
I'm so glad I found these videos. What a treasure trove.
Doing A level Philosophy, and this was a fantastic lecture on Kant!
My new hobby exploring things I’ve never even thought about it’s so satisfying
14:12 reason is a slave of the passions; reason is an instrument to satisfy desires; desires are not rationally determined
34:37 For plato the man is metafoor for republic
Thanks!
Such a pleasure listening to these lectures
Pretty great. I summed the Moral Imperative up in one sentence in Western Civ II thusly: “It’s either moral all the time or not at all and people aren’t mere means to your own ends”.
Lol, I also summed up his notion for “how to achieve perpetual peace” as, “1) be a small republic so that the people who are deciding to go to war would be the ones who have to actually fight the war alongside their fellow citizens, whom they presumably care about 2) DONT be the Roman Republic 3) Perpetual Peace”. I’m sure that earthquake you felt just now was him rolling over in his grave.
Moral Universality . Two words I take from this lacture... excellent video
these types of minds need to exist on this planet much longer than 66yrs RIP
Right now Kant is my favorite philosopher. He caught my attention with his Transcendental Idealism, it's so fascinating to me. And now I'm learning about Categorical Imperatives, which I might not agree with 100%, but it's still relevant in majority situations. I applaud Dr. Sugrue for explaining things so clearly. And he literally lectured for 45 minutes straight by memory that's how well he knows this topic.
When you retreat inside your empty mind, do you experience God?
Great Lecture.. Kant makes me understand Epictetus's Philosophy more Clearly
I’ve just discovered this channel today. Oh, great joy!
Absolutely terrific exposition sir. Thank you very much.
Thank you Dr. Sugrue
I am a philosophy professor. This is a damned fine lecture.
My Categorical Imperative for understanding a particular philosophy is to watch one of Dr. Sugrue's videos on the subject.
I have never been teached like this before.. I had a lot of great teachers but i still needed to do a lot of self study. I understood everything he said in one single watch, very few people teachers can achieve that and that too without opening a single paper. I wonder how much he had to study to reach this point.
Bear in mind that if you haven’t read the thing yourself then you can’t say you really know the subject, this one is only to encourage you to read it yourself and to understand the context. As good as this lecture is it is still very introductory hence superficial (which isn’t a bad thing in this case, on the contrary, this is the point).
What a gift, this is fantastic...
Thank u very much sir, you made it easiest to understand. Hats off to you.❤
Wow, I finally found the perfect channel in youtube
So Kant’s distinction between “hypothetical imperative” and “categorical imperative” is essentially cutting the _IF_ statement off of the hypothetical imperative (if thirsty, then drink). The categorical would be like a “demand from above” right-a sort of divine law/supreme injunction that we must obey.
Absolutely! Dead on! In the aim of finding an ethical/moral structure that every moral individual should follow, Kant had to find the most essential, imperative, moral opinion that everyone had, regardless of gender, age, time period or culture. Something that everyone could agree on, wether they wanted to or not.
Kants categorical imperative is about not staking out exceptions for yourself
A very excellent overview. Very well done.
extremely clear and really fluent explanation , thanks alot
40:20 I wasnt expecting to burst out laughing during a lecture on Kant
man I'm a non English speaker and I'd know I've achieved something when I can talk like this man for hours.
Seen a whole lot of these by now. Fantastic lecturer.
Just found you channel, professor. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and perspective. You are a great teacher and orator.
This man is legend ❤
Brilliant.
Rest in power sir Michael, you will be remembered.
Our all plaudits for DR Sugrue whose waterfall of rhythmic plain simple sentences completely cleanse up the listeners' minds of several ambiguities and anomalies raised by some critics respecting the KANT'S thematic Assertions of social MORES...the flow doesnot decline even unto the last...!
Someone please give this man a glass of water!
Where do I send my student loan payments to? One of the best teachers in the world!!!
Been waiting for this one.. finally out let’s go!!!
@11:54 intent vs behaviour Kant vs Hume
@15:30 how to get what you want - reason
Reason does not tell you what to pursue. According to Hume, these stem from irrationality.
Thanks for posting Doc! Philosophy allows us to live a richer fuller life.
Richer, fuller suffering.